The hashtag 21st century learning is surely becoming redundant. Are we not living the 21st century now? Are the skills that our students are acquiring making them prepared for a life in this century? This is the present and, as such, we need to ensure that we provide opportunities for effective learning in our classrooms.
Reading through the IB document, “Towards a continuum of international education’ a few key words leapt out at me regarding the skills we need to foster for life after school:
- Process/Evaluate – our students are inquiring into real world issues and discussing global events. As they do so they have access to a huge amount of data and resulting knowledge. The need to foster our learners to process and evaluate the acquired knowledge is key.
- Anticipate/Adapt – we are preparing our students for a world that is rapidly evolving. There are areas of the world that are constantly in a state of fragility. The world needs people who can adapt to these changes and anticipate changes that could happen.
- Transfer – provide our students the opportunities to transfer their learning in new and unfamiliar situations and scenarios that apply to the real world.
- Collaborate – we collaborate to become more effective, to discuss and share ideas as well as to grow and develop from another. We should ensure we provide opportunities for students to solve problems in groups where solutions are discussed. This is the norm. Rarely are there times in the modern workplace/world where people have to work on their own.
- Self-Confidence – give chances to develop self confidence as learners.
- Critical thinking – this is a much needed skill for students to function and thrive in the world today. When the students are investigating their own inquiries discuss the need to distinguish sense from nonsense, falsities from the truth and then make informed choices and judgement.
Do we provide opportunities for students to develop these skills?
A Collaborative Effort 